Positiv decks are usually maple, but some are hard birch. They are made using the same laminating process and glue that Powell Peralta boards use. These decks have Positiv’s super slide treatment (SST), which is essentially a plastic lining that makes the board slide more easily. The stuff works, and wax becomes less necessary for slides with these boards.

Launched in 1991 by professional skateboarder Mike Ternasky who was killed in a car accident in 1994, Plan B Skateboards was renewed in 2005 by professional skateboarders Danny Way and Colin McKay. The top Skateboards brand, recognized by its unique logo, offers customization, but it also produces skateboards that come already assembled and ready for immediate action with everything a skateboarder needs including the deck, wheels, trucks, and bearings. The decks are made with a durable and thick seven-ply maple. They are also designed for you to make them uniquely yours with cool graphics that reveal your personality. In addition to the decks, Plan B also produces wheels, toolkits, and the kind of hip clothing that every skateboarder wants to be seen wearing. In addition to Way and McKay, the Plan B team consists of pro skateboarders PJ Ladd, Chris Cole, Pat Duffy, Ryan Sheckler, Torey Pudwill, Leticia Bufoni, Chris Joslin, Felipe Gustavo and Sean Sheffey.

Skateboarding has also become a major source of inspiration for high-end fashion brands, as they design their own interpretations of the skate culture and style from graphic T-shirts, five-panel hats, cropped, wide-leg pants, and skateboarding sneakers from the brands like Vans. But there’s no faking the original, and the brands that do it best are the ones that have a long-time heritage in the sport of the board, unlike the luxury labels simply trying to capitalize on the look.
In this in-depth guide, we’re going to cover how to choose the best skateboard for beginners, and review the top five beginner skateboards on the market right now. We’ll talk about how to choose the right size, what parts of a skateboard you should pay attention to, how to choose the right shape, choosing the right wheels, and more. First, let’s talk about the top five skateboards for beginners.
Over the years skateboard-deck art has continued to influence and expand the culture of skateboarding, as many people began collecting skateboards based on their artistic value and nostalgia. Productions of limited editions with particular designs and types of collectible prints that can be hung on the wall, have been created by such famous artist as Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. Most professional skateboarders today have their own signature skateboard decks, with their favorite artistic designs printed on them using computer graphics.[100][101]

The first thing to consider is what kind of skateboarding you want to do. Do you want to skate your local skate park and learn tricks? Do you want something for commuting across town or campus? Or, would you enjoy charging down hills at high speeds? Take a look at the options below and note which features work well for the type of skating you want to do.

By 2001 skateboarding had gained so much popularity that more people under the age of 18 rode skateboards (10.6 million) than played baseball (8.2 million), although traditional organized team sports still dominated youth programs overall.[43] Skateboarding and skateparks began to be viewed and used in a variety of new ways to complement academic lessons in schools, including new non-traditional physical education skateboarding programs, like Skatepass[44] and Skateistan,[45] to encourage youth to have better attendance, self-discipline and confidence.[46][47][48] This was also based on the healthy physical opportunities skateboarding was understood to bring participants for muscle & bone strengthening and balance, as well as the positive impacts it can have on youth in teaching them mutual respect, social networking, artistic expression and an appreciation of the environment.[49][50][51][52]

101187 Killer Pads5boroABC Hat Co.AceAdidasAlien WorkshopAlltimersAlmostAltamontAndaleAnti-HeroArborAtlasBacon SkateboardsBakerBearBenny GoldBernBirdhouseBlack LabelBlindBlood OrangeBlood WizardBLVDBonesBones BearingsBrixtonBro StyleBronson Speed Co.BulletCaliberCanalChocolateChrystie NYCCloud RideClub MidniteColours CollectivConverseCortina Bearing Co.CreateCreatureCrupieDark SeasDarkroomDarkstarDB LongboardsDC ShoesDeath LensDeathwishDGKDial Tone Wheel Co.Diamond Supply CoDickiesDietaDivineDOGDont CareDooksDoom Sayers ClubDustersElementEmericaEnjoieSEtceteraEthikaEtniesEvisenFancy LadFKDFlipFootprint
Modern decks are made with a composite of thin layers of either maple or bamboo pressed into a near symmetrical shape with a nose equal to or longer than the tail. The deck should be concave (subtle U shape) along the whole board with both the nose and tail angled upwards (the "kick" of the board). Conceptually while the skateboard is a platform, it also serves to cup the balls of the skater’s feet with rising sides, nose and tail providing the foundation for pretty much all modern skateboard tricks.
With the evolution of skateparks and ramp skating, the skateboard began to change. Early skate tricks had consisted mainly of two-dimensional freestyle manoeuvres like riding on only two wheels ("wheelie" or "manual"), spinning only on the back wheels (a "pivot"), high jumping over a bar and landing on the board again, also known as a "hippie jump", long jumping from one board to another, (often over small barrels or fearless teenagers), or slalom. Another popular trick was the Bertlemann slide, named after Larry Bertelemann's surfing manoeuvres.
Approximately two decades ago, a group of friends who were well versed in the world of skateboarding, set up their own brand; Plan B. Their knowledge and expertise helped them in setting up one of the best skateboard brands in the market with incredible gear. Not only does this Californian style skateboard company have the best-assembled skateboards, it is quite famous for its amazing decks. The customers of Plan B are literally head over heels for its amazing and durable decks. Plan B decks are made from thick 7 ply maple that gives it extra strength and minimal flexing.
Buy a quality deck. Decks available at your local department store are usually of low quality and have pictures of cartoon characters on the bottom. If you want an entire board, but don't know exactly what you want, buy a complete skateboard from a company or go to a skate shop and ask the employee about the products. If you want to ride on the streets, get a 7.5 to 8.0 deck, if you want to ride vert, 8.0 and up is probably best. However, it's all personal preference. People street skate all the time with decks over 8.0.

Bearings are rated by the ABEC scale (1-9), which has nothing to do with skateboarding. Manufacturers know skaters believe higher ABEC ratings mean faster bearings. They do not, and you won’t find high-quality bearings on off-the-shelf skateboards. Most of these completes are slow. Make a bearing upgrade a top priority. Good bearings can make almost any skateboard fast. This article by longtime pro Anthony Pappalardo gives an insider’s perspective on bearings.
Approximately two decades ago, a group of friends who were well versed in the world of skateboarding, set up their own brand; Plan B. Their knowledge and expertise helped them in setting up one of the best skateboard brands in the market with incredible gear. Not only does this Californian style skateboard company have the best-assembled skateboards, it is quite famous for its amazing decks. The customers of Plan B are literally head over heels for its amazing and durable decks. Plan B decks are made from thick 7 ply maple that gives it extra strength and minimal flexing.
A 100% genuine Penny board. It is a complete skateboard featuring classic design. Its design reference comes from 1970s boards. It replicates the retro era skateboard. Its small size makes it an ideal cruiser providing you with ease of using it anywhere. Whether commuting to your school or surfing along with friends, Penny Complete Skateboard provides a smooth ride. It is lightweight and easy to carry around as well. It can easily bear heavy weight and will not give in. You can easily master your skateboarding skills and become a pro using genuine Penny Australia Classic Complete Skateboard.
The Powell Golden Dragon 2 Skateboard is an affordable and complete skateboard for the beginners and also for the advanced skaters. It has high-rebound, hand-cast polyurethane wheels to give you a great roll and grip. It measures 7.5 inches wide with a colorful screen-printed bottom. It is made in China and has an average rating of 4.2 on Amazon.
“The skateboard industry’s current focus on performance by displaying almost exclusively difficult tricks, whether technical or dangerous, is not something we relate to on our daily experience on our boards. We feel that skateboarding has much more to offer than being only a sport. It has cultural, social, artistic, sociological values and much more and it seems all these aspects are being widely overlooked by the industry. Magenta is our outlet for representing the wide spectrum of possibilities that skateboarding carries within itself.”

As has been noted that Longboard Brand is the king of all brands. For five years, it has maintained the first position without any ups and downs. The survey for 2018 has also given the same result for Sector 9. The attractive design and technical support of this brand have received a maximum score from the customers. It has unbeaten quality, size, riding style, overall performance, safety, and other relevant requirements. If you have the budget, you can undoubtedly rely on this best longboard brand.

Longboards excel when covering longer distances on roads and bike paths or for “bombing” hills. The wider trucks and wheelbase provide superior stability, and larger wheel options help retain speed for faster commuting. Still, longboards are less responsive than shorter boards and don’t always have kick tails, making them less functional in tight spaces.
Krooked’s video release to date include ‘Krooked Kronichles‘ (2006), the experimental ‘Krooked – Gnar Gnar‘ (2007) only released on VHS in limited numbers, predating the explosion of interest in the outdated VHS format as foregrounded by brands such as Palace skateboards some years later, ‘Krooked – Naughty‘ (2008) and Krooked – Krook3D (filmed in both regular and 3D formats) (2010).
Severe injuries are relatively rare.[103] Commonly, a skateboarder who falls suffers from scrapes, cuts, bruises, and sprains.[103] Among injuries reported to a hospital, about half involve broken bones, usually the long bones in the leg or arm.[102] One-third of skateboarders with reported injuries are very new to the sport, having started skating within one week of the injury.[102] Although less common, involving 3.5–9 percent of reported injuries, traumatic head injuries and death are possible severe outcomes.[102]
First, you’ll need to consider the size of the skateboard. Most skateboards are about eight inches wide, but if you have very large feet, or you really want to feel very stable as you learn, consider going with something wider. Remember that the wider you go, the harder it is to learn tricks and to go around curves. If you want to rotate your board mid-air during a jump, you need a board that is no wider than eight inches.

Canadian maple wood decks are the industry standard and is what the vast majority of decks on this list will be made of. However, is the seller just says “maple” the deck is typically made in China and the wood may be slightly softer and lower quality. This is more common among the lower cost blank decks, and most pro brands or higher end blanks are typically 100% Canadian maple. In my opinion, the difference between Canadian and Chinese maple decks is slight and in many cases, a cheaper Chinese deck may be the better option for you if you have a small budget or tend to go through decks very quickly.

To help you decide what designs you like most, we included various patterns and printings in our review section. From cherry blossoms to fiery dragons, from checkered boxes to padded pugs, there is a lot to explore. You have to remember that you will be using this skateboard for years/months to come. Therefore, it’s important to choose a design that you think is cool, not a design that will look cool to others!

Swing boarding is the activity where a skateboard deck is suspended from a pivot point above the rider which allows the rider to swing about that pivot point. The board swings in an arc which is a similar movement to riding a half pipe. The incorporation of a harness and frame allows the rider to perform turns spins all while flying though the air.

Founded by the pro skateboarder Marc Johnson in the year 2000, enjoi has been on the market for over two decades now. They have since expanded, and started producing skateboarding accessories and clothing apart from just skateboards. Since then, they have adopted a panda as their logo. This logo is featured on most of their products and has quickly become the company’s trademark.

Founded by the original technical street skaters Daewon Song and Rodney Mullen, Almost Skateboards always pushes the envelope with fun, artistic cartoon graphics paired with high quality materials. Almost was one of the first brands to implement carbon fiber layers to their decks in the “Impact” deck line to increase the deck’s life and better maintain its shape.

If you are completely new to skateboarding, consider taking a minute to read through the Skateboard Decks Section in our Buyer’s Guide will be helpful, but a good rule of thumb is: the bigger your feet, the wider your board should be. If you wear a size 9 and up, you can’t go wrong with buying an 8” board. Narrow boards are easier to flip while wider boards are more stable, but there are no hard and fast rules to skateboarding. The only way to really find out what you like is by trying new shapes, sizes, and brands. Brands like Welcome, Baker, Chocolate, Deathwish, and Element all have a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and graphics.

Be sure to purchase from a reputable source. Buying online might save you a few dollars, but try your local skate shop first. The few extra dollars you spend support the shop and your local skate community. Developing a good relationship with a local skate shop often saves you money in the long run. The completes are not as good as custom made, but you can get them for a lot less money and upgrade any bad components later.

Skateboards are for people who want to try something new and extreme. If you have not given it a shot and you want to challenge yourself then you should try skateboarding. It is a fact that there are certain risks that go along with skateboarding. However, skateboarding can teach you to balance and it is also a great way of losing weight. Skateboarding can also help you in making friends while you are in the park. With skateboarding, you can learn perseverance and build confidence.

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Many musicians, painters and designers have explored their potentials through skateboarding. When you skate, your inner talents come out in many ways. Painters paint their decks with artistic sceneries and musicians sing while they are deeply involved in cruising through the smooth roads. People with graphic designing and photography passion bring out their skills by taking an incredible picture while skateboarding and edit them beautifully. Skateboarding no doubt polishes your skills!
By 2001 skateboarding had gained so much popularity that more people under the age of 18 rode skateboards (10.6 million) than played baseball (8.2 million), although traditional organized team sports still dominated youth programs overall.[43] Skateboarding and skateparks began to be viewed and used in a variety of new ways to complement academic lessons in schools, including new non-traditional physical education skateboarding programs, like Skatepass[44] and Skateistan,[45] to encourage youth to have better attendance, self-discipline and confidence.[46][47][48] This was also based on the healthy physical opportunities skateboarding was understood to bring participants for muscle & bone strengthening and balance, as well as the positive impacts it can have on youth in teaching them mutual respect, social networking, artistic expression and an appreciation of the environment.[49][50][51][52]
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Omar Salazar suffered a bad knee injury recently and was sidelined from skating, allowing him to refocus his energy into running his company, Doomsayers. Following the demise of Alien Workshop and facing an uncertain future in the industry, Omar decided to really focus on a brand whose image is not shy about its disdain for corporate greed, which many people blame for the demise of his long time sponsor.
As the only female-focused and female-owned skateboard brand on this list, Meow Skateboards is notable for boldly stepping into the male-dominated skateboard industry and succeeding where other similar projects have failed. Prior to establishing the Meow Skateboard Brand, Lisa Whitaker was already a driving force within female skateboarding as the founder of the largest online resource for female skateboarding in the world – Girls Skate Network.

Best cruiser skateboards include large wheels, since they offer you both stability and speed. They usually have much softer wheels than the regular skateboards you use for doing skateboard tricks and ollies. A good beginner cruise skateboard for beginners can be the La Sports Retro board. It has a simple design and is surrounded by 5-star reviews all around! Many customers report it feeling sturdy and firm, while going at very good speeds.

Skateboarding damages urban terrain features such as curbs, benches, and ledges when skateboarders perform "grinds" and other tricks on these surfaces.[112] Private industry has responded to this problem by using skate deterrent devices, such as the Skatestopper, in efforts to prevent further damage and to reduce skateboarding on these surfaces.[112]

Bearings are standardized to fit in all kinds of skateboard wheels. All bearings will eventually get dirt and gunk in them which slows you down. Regular cleaning is recommended. Higher quality bearings will perform better, roll faster, retain more speed, and last longer when cleaned regularly. Some bearings come with bearing spacers or have spacers built into the bearing. These will fit in any wheel, but are not necessary for most types of skateboarding or longboarding.
I rode for them as a ‘Amateur’ skateboarder in ‘79-’80, and they, at that time, had one of the Best boards out on the market, made of Fiberglass in a torsion box, with a foam core, and urethane ‘bumpers’ all around. I still have that board, and one set of C-70 Reds from then. I skated that gear hard, for many years, too. I still own 6–7 full sets of “krypto’s” for skateboards, and 8 that’re on quad-roller-skates. Great wheels, and they’re still in use.
“The skateboard industry’s current focus on performance by displaying almost exclusively difficult tricks, whether technical or dangerous, is not something we relate to on our daily experience on our boards. We feel that skateboarding has much more to offer than being only a sport. It has cultural, social, artistic, sociological values and much more and it seems all these aspects are being widely overlooked by the industry. Magenta is our outlet for representing the wide spectrum of possibilities that skateboarding carries within itself.”